The 24-hour monitoring supplements on-going bedside care by using advanced, early-warning software to continuously analyze each patient’s condition. The sophisticated program alerts the Critical Connections team to negative trends at their earliest stages, allowing intervention to be ordered sooner, reducing the risk for complications, decreasing the length of stay in the hospital and even saving lives.

“There is a growing body of evidence that hospitals with programs like Critical Connections improve care and provide better outcomes for patients.” says Liz Emery, director of critical care and progressive care services at Owensboro Health. “We strive to provide the very highest quality care and feel that this partnership is just one more tool to help us serve our most seriously ill patients.”

Live, two-way video allows the Critical Connections team and the bedside staff to speak to each other through a monitor in the patient room. The in-room camera is a powerful diagnostic tool for the intensive care physicians and nurses, allowing them to detect small details such as subtle changes in skin color or eye movement.

“Since opening at The Christ Hospital, our Critical Connections team has detected more than 800 potentially-fatal events and worked with bedside staff to provide life-saving care sooner than would have been possible with traditional monitoring,” said Christopher M. Orabella, MD, medical director of The Christ Hospital Critical Connections. “Our team could never replace skilled care at the bedside, but we have become a powerful ally to our colleagues in the ICU and look forward to that same relationship with our new partners in Owensboro.”